Overview

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First Division

Arsenal won the league championship at the end of a season which would soon be followed by their FA Cup final tie with Liverpool. They narrowly overcame Leeds to win the league, with a 12-point gap separating Leeds from third-placed Tottenham. Wolves and Liverpool joined these two teams in the UEFA Cup. Chelsea missed out on the top five on goal average but compensated for this shortcoming by achieving European Cup Winners' Cup glory over Real Madrid.

Burnley and Blackpool (who won this year's Anglo-Italian Cup) were relegated to the Second Division. Burnley returned from 1973/74 to 1975/76 but Blackpool have never regained their top flight status.

FA Cup

The 1971 FA Cup Final saw Arsenal beat Liverpool 2-1 to become only the fourth club in history and the second club this century to have won the league championship and FA Cup double.

Stoke City beat Everton 3-2 at Selhurst Park in a third-place playoff, held the day before the final. The biggest FA Cup shock, however, was Fourth Division Colchester United's 3-2 victory over Don Revie's Leeds United in the fifth round.

Ford Sporting League

The Ford Sporting League was a short-lived reward scheme sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. Its only season was that of 1970–1971. Clubs were awarded a point for every goal scored at home and two points for every goal scored away, but lost 5 points if a player was booked and 10 points if a player was sent off.[1]

Points could be earned over the first 42 league games (it did not apply to cup ties) only, so that the First and Second divisions were on an equal footing with the Third and Fourth.

Oldham Athletic won the competition, winning a pot of £70,000. League rules stipulated the prize money be used on stadium improvements, so the money went to build a stand in the stadium.[2]

The £70,000 prize fund was made up of 8 monthly prizes of £2,500 and then a final prize of £50,000. The points total was cumulative, which resulted in Oldham winning each prize available, as they picked up only four bookings and no red cards over the 42 game period.